Teachers have a right to show solidarity with Palestinians
By Miro Sandev
Oct 24, 2024
A Palestinian woman in the midst of the massive destruction caused by Israeli bombardment of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip. (Photo inserted)
Gaza has been flattened by Israeli attacks. Ninety per cent of schools have been damaged, or destroyed. Two thirds of schools, 285 of them, have been completely destroyed. All universities have been destroyed. The United Nations has called Israel’s deliberate targeting of Gaza’s education infrastructure, scholasticide.
Sam Rose, Senior Deputy Director of UNRWA says, “Israel has killed a classroom of children every single day for a whole year”. All surviving children have missed a year of school, and are being intentionally starved. The entire population has been displaced. Thousands of children have had limbs amputated without anaesthetic.
The genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza is a world historic crime, unfurling before our eyes. Israeli terror has now been expanded into Lebanon and the West Bank, and they have also bombed Syria, Yemen, and Iran.
In a Sydney Morning Herald article on October 18 Gemma Quinn from the Parents and Citizens Federation says, “Parents want their children to learn about current affairs as part of the curriculum, not as an in-classroom protest”. But school children are not learning anything about what is happening. The Herald reporters would have learnt that if they had bothered to contact us for comment.
Public school students watch the genocide on their smartphones, but are then told explicitly that they cannot talk about it in class. There is silence in the schools run by the NSW Department of Education. The Department issued directives telling principals and teachers to ‘remain neutral on the conflict in the Middle East’. Principals have told teachers that “anything about Gaza in the classroom, must come past them first”. This kind of totalitarian style directive is a direct result of government policy to be “neutral” on genocide, of political manipulation of the school curriculum.
As NSW Greens MLC Abigail Boyd said in parliament to the head of the NSW Education Department Murat Dizdar, “We’re not neutral on murder. We’re not neutral on most crimes. Why would we be neutral on war [crimes]?” Dizdar and NSW Education Minister Prue Car said they would review the repressive directions to schools around Gaza, but we have heard nothing since.
Students should be allowed to grapple with multiple perspectives in the Middle East, to hear South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and Israel’s defence. But they get neither. Perhaps this is because the facts themselves are damning, and the government is worried students might make up their own minds.
It is not clear whether Quinn from the P&C consulted any parents before making her comments, but she certainly doesn’t represent all parents. Angry parents, particularly of Palestinian, and Middle Eastern heritage, have held meetings with school principals, and joined us in protest outside the Education Department. They have been angry about the suppression of their children’s identity, such as being barred from wearing their cultural dress, or displaying their flag on “Harmony Day”, in circumstances where this is encouraged for students of all other backgrounds.
Students and teachers have been threatened or disciplined, for human displays of solidarity that would be commonplace around any other issue. For instance Wear it Purple Day is celebrated in schools in support of LGBTIQA+ students. But students have got detention for drawing the Palestinian flag on their hands. Teachers from a Palestinian background have been threatened with “action” against them, or being put on leave, for wearing the keffiyeh, the traditional Palestinian scarf. Their very identity is suddenly a problem.
To support the right to show solidarity, and to call to stop the bombing, Teachers & School staff for Palestine NSW have organised a week of action. Teachers will be wearing keffiyeh to school, taking group photos with signs saying “Don’t Bomb Gaza & Lebanon, Sanction Israel” at lunch, or offering watermelon in the staffroom. None of these things are disruptive to the HSC, or in breach of the code of conduct, as mainstream media and politicians have argued. It’s instructive that our political leaders are more scandalised by teachers speaking out against genocide, than by the crime of genocide itself.
Victorian Education Minister Ben Caroll criticised similar teachers’ actions in Victoria, claiming they were “inflammatory” and “divisive”. But wearing the keffiyeh is not directed at Jewish people, many of whom join the marches for Palestine, and wear it themselves. It is directed against the Israeli apartheid state and in solidarity with the victims of genocide.
What is inflammatory is Australia making the parts for the F35 planes that bomb the children of Gaza, something arguably in breach of Australia’s international legal obligations given the finding by the ICJ that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories is unlawful. Australia has given a one billion dollar contract to Israeli weapons company Elbit systems. Ben Caroll himself officially visited Israel in March 2023 to cement defence and trade links.
NSW Premier Chris Minns claimed that conflict from the Middle East shouldn’t be brought into the classroom, but what he really doesn’t want is for students to understand that Australia is facilitating genocide in the Middle East. Australia has issued 12 defence-related export permits to Israel since Oct 2023. Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese continue to play a role of politically defending Israel, for instance by claiming it has a “right to self-defence” – as if carpet bombing civilians and incinerating refugee camps and schools amounts to self-defence.
Weapons manufacturers that arm Israel are allowed to sponsor third party school programs, like First Lego League, Beacon, Maths Alive and many more. This is importing the agenda of normalising their weapons trade into the classroom. This trade contributes to killing children in Gaza, something which is never explained to the children who take part.
Minns, Car, Carroll and Albanese are happy to allow warmongers into the classroom, but want to silence discussion of Palestine and peace. Teachers have a right to show solidarity with victims of genocide and scholasticide, and we will continue to do so.
Miro Sandev is a high school teacher and anti-war activist. He is a member of Teachers and School Staff for Palestine NSW, Solidarity and the Sydney Anti-AUKUS Coalition. He lives on unceded Wangal land.
https://johnmenadue.com/teachers-have-a-right-to-show-solidarity-with-palestinians/
